Sometimes, it’s difficult to find condiments and low carb sauces that work with a keto diet. A lot of people love the spicy flavor of sriracha, but is it okay to eat on a keto diet? Here’s what you need to know about this popular hot sauce.
What is Sriracha?
Sriracha is a pretty simple spicy sauce or condiment that usually only has a few ingredients, like sugar, chilis, garlic, salt, and vinegar. The bright red color comes from the red jalapeno peppers that are commonly used to make this fiery chili sauce.
Is Sriracha keto?
As long as you don’t overindulge, you can safely incorporate sriracha into a keto diet. Although most sriracha recipes do have some sugar, that usually doesn’t become a problem unless you use too much of it.
How many carbs does Sriracha have?
One teaspoon of sriracha has 1 net carb, which easily fits into a keto diet where someone is trying to stay between 20 and 50 g of net carbs. That said, a teaspoon is not that much, and many people use a lot more than one teaspoon of sriracha. Monitoring your portion size is key.
What are the other nutritional benefits of Sriracha?
Sriracha hot sauce has many potential health benefits. Most hot peppers contain a compound called capsaicin, which, in addition to giving peppers their spiciness, also has some potential health benefits. Capsaicin may help boost metabolism, suppress appetite, alleviate muscle or arthritis pain, and improve mood. Peppers are also full of antioxidants, specifically vitamins A and C.
What are the downsides of Sriracha?
The biggest downside of sriracha is that it’s very spicy food, and not everyone can handle it. If you have issues with heartburn or reflux, adding even a little bit of sriracha to your food might have bad results for you after you eat.
How to eat on Sriracha keto
There are a lot of ways to add sriracha to a keto diet.
A lot of people use sriracha as a dipping sauce. You can simply cut up strips of chicken or beef and dip them right into a small ramekin of sriracha. Or, use it as a spicier and low sugar replacement for ketchup.
You can also use sriracha as a sort of spice or flavoring. Add some to your mayo or sour cream to spice things up a bit, or mix it into your bone broth for a little added kick.
Sriracha is a great addition to many recipes, too. For example, mix it with some tuna and cauliflower rice, roll it up in some seaweed, and you have four-ingredient spicy tuna rolls. Add it to cooked shrimp with some lime juice and garlic, then toss over cauliflower rice or zucchini noodles and enjoy.
You can also drizzle a little sriracha over your next batch of grilled chicken wings, or try making your own sriracha cauliflower bites in your air fryer. All you have to do is mix some sriracha with mayo, dip your chunks of cauliflower in, and air fry or put on a baking sheet in the oven. The result makes a great substitute for breaded popcorn chicken or boneless breaded wings.
